Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 6, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following: “(ea) details of the manner in which obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability, with due regard to the principle of universal design and regulations under Statutory Instrument Number 513 of 2010, have been reflected in the proposed development;”.

What are trying to do here is ensure the large-scale residential development would be required to adopt the principle of universal design in terms the housing being accessible to people with disabilities. We need more disability accessible housing. We have a similar logic in a number of our amendments and in some we intend to add. The developers here are getting a special pass. We are sceptical about whether we need a special process for them at all, now that we are getting rid of the strategic housing developments, SHDs. They should just have to go through the normal planning process. We do not really see why they should get a special process of their own. Given that a special process is being established for these large-scale residential developments, there should be a quid pro quo, one of which being that the housing delivered under it will be universally accessible to people with disabilities and that it will be to the highest environmental standards. We have not submitted an amendment on this at this stage, but will be saying there should be a higher proportion of social and affordable housing. There needs to be strings attached to getting a special process, which are about meeting social and environmental objectives, the first of which is around universal design.